Raspberry plant named &#39;Sapphire&#39;

ABSTRACT

The present invention is a new and distinct floricane fruiting red raspberry cultivar named ‘Sapphire’, which is capable of producing large, attractive, flavorful and firm fruit which has exceptional consumer appeal characteristics. The cultivar is characterized by its thorniness throughout the plant, as described herein, lack of fall or primocane fruiting, its strong and distinctive flavor and firmness and its very large fruit size, weight and morphology, specifically its truncated conic, very uniform, fruit shape with minimal bulginess in its basal region or on its receptacle. ‘Sapphire’ plants are very productive in regions having sufficient chilling to produce sufficient spring bud break. Its high yield, firmness, storage ability and large size make ‘Sapphire’ economical to pick mid to mid late season floricane variety for shipping.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This invention claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(f) of applicationnumber 2013/0882 filed on 18 Mar. 2013 at the European Community PlantVariety Office (CPVO).

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention concerns a new and distinct cultivar of floricanefruiting raspberry plant with a botanical name of Rubus ideaus L. Thenew cultivar is distinguished from other cultivars by its combination offruit firmness, size, flavor and attractiveness and plant productivity.‘Sapphire’ is thereby suitable for premium fresh fruit marketing incommercial production areas which rely on floricane cultivars withnormal chilling requirements.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED PRIOR ART

Several cultivars of floricane fruiting (commonly known as “springbearing”) raspberry plants are known which have either large sized, firmor attractive fruit. For instance, raspberry cultivars named ‘GlenAmple’, ‘Josephine’, ‘Driscoll Maravilla’, ‘Cascade Bounty’, ‘Adele’,‘Marcianna’, ‘Wakefield’, ‘DrisRaspFour’, ‘Crimson Giant’, and‘DrisRaspThree’, have been described in U.S. Plant Pat. Nos. 11,418,12,173, 14,804, 18,246, 20,773, 21,007, 21,185, 22,731, 23,375 and23,477, respectively and ‘Georgia’ U.S. Pat. No. 20070261142. The newand distinct cultivar of the present invention is a raspberry plantnamed ‘Sapphire’. This cultivar differs from’ Josephine’, ‘Driscoll‘Driscoll Maravilla’, ‘Marcianna’, ‘DrisRaspFour’, ‘Crimson Giant’ and‘DrisRaspThree’ in bearing fruit only in the spring while the othercultivars can also produce fruit on their primocanes in the fall.‘Sapphire’ canes are thorny, distinguishing it from ‘Glen Ample’ and‘Georgia’ which are thornless, and ‘Adele’, which is minimally thornyand has spines which are smaller and lighter colored then ‘Sapphire’.‘Driscoll Maravilla’ has spines similar in number and size to‘Sapphire’, however, the spines on ‘Sapphire’ are darker in color, andthe color is more uniform. ‘Sapphire’ fruit is bright red in color whenripe, while other floricane-crop only cultivars ‘Wakefield’ and ‘CrimsonGiant’ are dark red when ripe, resembling over ripe ‘Sapphire’ fruit.‘Cascade Bounty’ is a floricane variety with similar thorn colorationand size. ‘Sapphire’ thorns are more numerous (approximately double atthe base of the plant) and ‘Sapphire’ fruit is larger, firmer and moreconic than the medium sized and round ‘Cascade Bounty’

ORIGIN OF THE NEW CULTIVAR

The new cultivar of spring bearing red raspberry originated from acontrolled cross by Five Aces Breeding LLC of Oakland, Md. at rentedglasshouse facilities in College Park, Md. The cross, designated: “DB”was Octavia (unpatented)×XFU-12vf (unpatented) and was made in thewinter of 2002. ‘Octavia’ is a premium late season, floricane fruiting,red raspberry cultivar with several desirable fruit quality attributes,including fruit size and reasonable fruit firmness. ‘XFU-12vf’ also hasseveral desirable fruit attributes, such as flavor and large fruit size,but is relatively soft. XFU-12vf is a cross of TU-2 (unpatented) x‘Caroline’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 10,412). TU-2 is a thorny sibling of thethornless spring bearing cultivar ‘Georgia’ (U.S. Pat. No.20070261142).This year of crossing was designated “B” as part of the Five AcesBreeding Certified Raspberry Breeding Program. The seed from this crosswas exported to the United Kingdom, germinated and grown by EdwardVinson Ltd at their Kemsdale Farm, Faversham, Kent United Kingdom. Thepresent invention was second seedling of the BDB progeny selected fromthe floricane seedling field in July 2005 and was thereafter designated“-12vf”. Thus, the complete breeding designation of ‘Sapphire’ is“BDB-12vf”. There are no known or used synonyms for “BDB-12vf”.

SUMMARY OF THE NEW CULTIVAR

This application relates to a new and distinct red fruited, floricanefruiting, raspberry cultivar, botanically known as Rubus ideaus L. Thefollowing characteristics are outstanding:

1. Production of floricane fruit which has a rare combination ofcommercial firmness, flavor, light color and attractiveness.

2. In all the areas of test of this selection, the fruit is larger thanall commercial floricane bearing cultivars known to applicants.

3. With the exception of ‘Glen Ample’ with equal productivity,‘Sapphire’ plants are more productive than other floricane fruitingcultivars tested in the United Kingdom; ‘Glen Ample’ fruit iscommercially grown, but is much smaller in fruit size.

These characteristics make ‘Sapphire’ suitable as a mid-summer floricanefruiting type for premium fresh fruit marketing in commercial productionareas worldwide. As ‘Sapphire’ floricanes require more than 1000 hoursof winter chilling for good bud break, ‘Sapphire’ should not be trustedto produce a crop in Mexico, the southern U.S. or south of Watsonville,Calif. Floricane fruit production has not been tested in areas thatexperience severe subfreezing temperatures, therefore, no claims aremade concerning cold hardiness below −12° C. (10° F.)

The following characteristics are useful in distinguishing this cultivarfrom other cultivars and can be useful for cultivar identification.Plants used for these observations were grown in uncrowded conditionsand in full sunlight.

1. ‘Sapphire’ plants do not produce a fall or primocane crop, even whengiven 160 days of good growing conditions. Floricanes require over 1000hours of exposure to temperatures between 32° and 50° F. to haveadequate bud break for a full spring crop.

2. The initial or primary fruit is conic; on average, the primary fruitis 25% longer than wide. Round type fruit, for example: ‘Josephine’ and‘Driscoll Maravilla’, have primary fruit with a ratio of width to lengthwithin 10% of 1 to 1. Fruit size of primary fruits grown in the UnitedKingdom was 3.19 cm. in length and 2.55 cm. in width, with an averagefruit weight of 8.3 grams. Thus, ‘Sapphire’ fruit size and weight isunusual for most raspberry genotypes, and rare in those with thecombination of fruit quality traits which allow commercial productionand shipping.

3. Thorns are numerous and found in greater abundance on the base of theplant as is normal for some varieties in the species. However, unlike alarge majority of varieties, thorns are also abundant throughout theplant including petioles and peduncles. The coloration of the thorns onprimocanes is typical of ‘Sapphire’ in different locations and, althoughthis coloration is found in other cultivars, thorn color can be used todistinguish ‘Sapphire’ from some other cultivars. Thorn coloration isconsistently deep grayed purple (1995 Royal Horticultural Society ColorPlate No. 183A) and the coloration extends about 1 mm. in an oval intothe surrounding cane. Thorn color deepens to the 1995 RoyalHorticultural Society Color Plate No. 187A in the fall and in welllighted areas of the canes. Thorns are generally 2 mm. in length,relatively thin and slightly downward pointed. Less than 10% of thethorns on canes are minute or significantly reduced in size.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS

The accompanying photographs show typical characteristics of the newvariety:

FIG. 1. shows a basal section of a ‘Sapphire’ primocane with the 1995Royal Horticultural Society Color Plate No. 144 for cane color and 183for thorn color.

FIG. 2. shows an apical section of a ‘Sapphire’ primocane with a redblush and the 1995 Royal Horticultural Society Color Plate No. 184B andslightly darker colored apical spines with Royal Horticultural SocietyColor Plate No. 187A and a cm. measuring stick.

FIG. 3. shows the two surfaces of ‘Sapphire’ primocane leaves and the1995 Royal Horticultural Society Color Plate Nos. 193C and 143A and acm. measuring stick.

FIG. 4. shows a ‘Sapphire’ flowering truss at flowering and with theleaves removed and a 1 ft. long measuring stick.

FIG. 5. shows a ‘Sapphire’ fruiting truss in a tunnel in early season.

FIG. 5A shows a ‘Sapphire’ fruit on its side and a cm measuring stickwith mm gradations indicating fruit length.

FIG. 5B shows a ‘Sapphire’ fruit resting on its top and a cm measuringstick with mm gradations indicating fruit width.

FIG. 6. shows three mid to late season fruit of ‘Sapphire’ and a cmmeasuring stick with mm gradations and the 1995 Royal HorticulturalSociety Color Plate No. 45A-B.

FIG. 7. shows early-midseason ‘Sapphire’ fruit in a pint clamshell.

FIG. 8. shows a row of fruiting ‘Sapphire’ floricanes as in-groundplants grown in a tunnel.

DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW CULTIVAR

The following is a detailed description of ‘Sapphire’, the new cultivar,including fruit production, together with the cultivar's morphologicalcharacteristics. ‘Sapphire’ is a Rubus idaeus hybrid and would bebotanically classified in that species commonly referred to as redraspberries. The characteristics of the cultivar were compared withother standards used in the United Kingdom and Mid-Atlantic Region ofthe U.S. The description is based on information provided by cooperatinggrowers from plants grown in fields at Faversham, Kent, and Reading,Berkshire, England, and from plants grown in the Five Aces Breedinggreenhouses at Oakland, Md., United States. As these climates differ,particularly in temperatures experienced in the growing season, webelieve the description of ‘Sapphire’ will be consistent in otherlocations.

‘Sapphire’ produces a moderate number of root- and crown- suckers (19per 10 gallon pot on one-year old tissue culture plants), more than‘Anne’ and ‘Josephine’, but less than ‘Georgia’ and ‘Glen Ample’. Duringthe growing season, canes are light green colored (1995 RoyalHorticultural Society Color Plate No. 144B) (FIG. 1) with a red blush(1995 Royal Horticultural Society plate No. 184B) on less than 30% ofthe cane during the early summer (FIG. 2). Canes are usually unbranchedand erect by the second year of a plant's growth. Total node ofinternodes per cane averaged 54 for first year tissue culture plants. Bycomparison, ‘Josephine’ produces 45 to 48 nodes per cane, on older adultor tissue culture produced first year plants. Growth of first yearplants is moderately vigorous, reaching on average 82.5 inches inuncrowded conditions in tunnels. Internode length at 30 cm. above groundin well lighted plants without floricanes is 6.2 cm. Cane diameter atthe same position was 0.85 cm. Canes have a moderate and noticeablewaxiness, a finger rub leaves a visible mark due to removal of the waxor “bloom”. In December or later, ‘Sapphire’ floricanes are blotchylight and moderately dark brown in color, resembling in hue the 1995Royal Horticultural Society Color Plate Nos. 177D, 177C and 177B for thelight, medium and darker brown patches respectively. Floricanesexfoliate to a slight amount, less than 10kin early winter.

Thorns are abundant in density: ranging from 176 to 212 per internodewith an average of 196.0 at 30 cm cane height and an average of 32.6 andrange of 25 to 38 at the apex of the cane. Petioles averaged 12.6 thornswith a range of 7 to 21 per petiole. Thorn shape is straight, slightlydownward pointing, and needle-like, (the length of the thorn is greaterthan twenty times its diameter) and length is approximately 2 mm (FIGS.1 and 2). ‘Sapphire’ thorn color is grayed purple (1995 RoyalHorticultural Society Color Plate No. 183A) in color throughout thespine (FIG. 1); including 1 mm of the surrounding epidermis of the cane.This thorn coloration of the cane is in an oval oriented with the longaxis parallel to the axis of the cane. The color of the thorns turnsdarker red (FIG. 2) in the fall or earlier in full sunlight in theapical part of the cane (1995 Royal Horticultural Society Color Plate187A) then brown in the dormant season (1995 Royal Horticultural SocietyColor Plate 177D), matching that of the overwintering floricanes. Asimilar pattern occurs with lateral buds, which are typical in size andshape of the species, bud color in the winter is dark brown (1995 RoyalHorticultural Society Color Plate No. 177A).

Typical of the species, ‘Sapphire’ leaf color and compoundedness aresomewhat variable, being responsive to growing conditions, position onthe plant, fertilization and vigor of the plant. In young plants, thelower surface of ‘Sapphire’ leaves is pubescent grey-green resemblingthe 1995 Royal Horticultural Society Color Plate No. 193C (FIG. 3). Theupper surfaces of both pentafoliolate and trifoliolate leaves are darkgreen, most closely in hue to the 1995 Royal Horticultural Society ColorPlate No. 143A in the greenhouse and 137A outdoors. Petiole andpetiolule colors are the same as that of the primocane during thegrowing season, the 1995 Royal Horticultural Society Color Plate No.144B, with occasional blush of similar to the 1995 Royal HorticulturalSociety Color Plate No. 184D. Senescing leaves have a green yellow colorresembling the 1995 Royal Horticultural Society Color Plate No. 146A.Leaves abscise readily in October and November and simultaneous colorchanges and exfoliation of the cane are indicative of the change to afloricane and a strong response to short days and cool temperatures.

Vigorous plants have leaves that can be pentafoliolate through thegrowing season in protected culture, but mostly trifoliolate leavesoccur, especially when grown outdoors in Oakland, Md., vigor is moderateor when short days occur and the internodes of the cane at the apexshorten in response to shorter light duration and cooler temperatures.Floricane trusses have almost exclusively trifoliolate leaves, with lessthan 10% monofoliolate leaves at the truss apex interspersed with apicalfruit.

The pentafoliolate terminal leaflet is, on average, 7.0 cm. wide and10.9 cm. long. The trifoliolate terminal leaflet is, on average, 8.5 cm.wide and 10.3 cm. long on primocanes and 5.2 cm. wide and 6.7 cm. longon floricane trusses. Monofoliolate leaves on floricane trusses are 3.2cm. long and 1.2 cm. wide. The pentafoliolate maximum leaf width,measured from apex of a lateral leaflet to the opposite lateral leafletapex is, on average, 18.5 cm. The trifoliolate maximum leaf width,measured from apex of the lateral leaflet to the opposite lateralleaflet apex is, on average, 16.1 cm on primocanes and 10.3 cm. onfloricane trusses. The width of the largest basal lateral leaflet is 6.4and 5.9 cm. for primocane pentafoliolate and trifoliolate leaflets,respectively; and 3.8 cm. on floricane trusses. The pentafoliolate leafpetiole, basal petiolule and apical petiolule lengths average 7.0 cm.,4.2 cm. and 2.2 cm., respectively, for a total length of 13.4 cm. Thetrifoliolate leaf petiole and terminal petiolule lengths averaged 4.0cm. and 2.9 cm., respectively, on primocanes and 4.0 and 1.6 cm. onfloricane trusses. For floral trusses, monofoliolate leaf petiolesaverage 0.5 cm. in length. Lateral leaflets are sessile and join at thepetiole apex with the apical leaf petiolule (FIG. 3). Leaf serration ismoderately complex sawtooth but ‘Sapphire’ moderate laminar puckeringand veination pattern are common for most cultivars of red raspberry andcannot be used to distinguish this cultivar.

Flowers do not appear on primocanes of adult ‘Sapphire’ plants. Afterchilling typical of spring bearing cultivars of the species, over 1000hours of temperatures between 32° F. and 50° F., lateral buds break andfloral trusses are formed which average 11.8 nodes and 13.5 in. inlength (FIG. 4). Of these 11.8 nodes, 4.9 have fruit on single orbranched peduncles averaging 1.5 cm. in length. Peduncles have, onaverage, 26.3 minute, but fully colored, thorns. Fruit number per trussis 14.4 flowers. Thus, flower trusses are typical cymose clusters on araceme with the apical flower on the main truss axis and the apical or“king” flower on the lateral compressed axes flowering first. Theflowering sequence, by node, progresses from the apex first, withseveral fruit ripening at that position, then starting at the most basalnodes then acropetally toward the apex (FIG. 5).

The unscented flower morphology and early fruit morphology is typical ofmost red raspberry cultivars, having five white (1995 RoyalHorticultural Society Color Plate No. 155D) petals that average 0.68 cm.long, 0.33 cm. wide; petals abscise after pollination. Flowers have five0.85 cm. long, 0.5 cm. wide at the base triangular grey green sepals(1995 Royal Horticultural Society Color Plate No. 194B). Sepals arelonger on primary fruits. Flowers have on average 58.8 pistils onsmaller midseason fruit and a similar number of anthers, 59.2; none ofthese traits can be used to identify ‘Sapphire’.

The initial or primary fruit are easily distinguishable by somewhattruncated conic shape for this variety at 12 days post pollination(FIGS. 4 and 5). Ripe larger fruit is smooth conic with a medium tolarge sized receptacle cavity averaging 1.3 cm. diameter. The initialmature fruit length was 3.19 cm (FIG. 5A) and width was 2.55 cm (FIG.5B), producing an initial fruit width to length ratio of 4 to 5 (FIGS. 6and 7), this ratio is smaller than ‘Marcianna’ and ‘Jaclyn’ two longfruited cultivars with a ratio above 5 width to 7 length. ‘Sapphire’,has a longer fruit than ‘Josephine’, ‘Polka’ and ‘Driscoll Maravilla’,which have more nearly round fruit and a ratio of 1 to 1. There are noirregularities to ‘Sapphire’ fruit shape or its underlying receptacle, asmooth cone which tapers to a point. With adequate width of the cavity,50% of the fruit width, fruit removal does not result in distention ofthe drupelets of ‘Sapphire’, reducing splitting during commercialpicking. Early fruit have 119 drupelets, and average 8.275 grams freshweight. Later fruit are smaller and averaged 55 drupelets for forcedplants in a trial in Oakland, Md. In a separate trial in England,average ‘Sapphire’ fruit weight across the season was 6.08 to 7.65grams, depending on cane density (4 to 6 canes per meter). ‘Sapphire’fruit are cohesive, but, unlike two other large-fruited fall bearingcultivars: ‘Josephine’ and ‘Anne’, it will not tear across the drupeletsbefore individual drupelets separate from each other. Unlike ‘Josephine’and ‘Anne’, ‘Sapphire’ fruit is not overly dusky or pubescent.

Fruit ripens beginning the second week in July in Kent, one month afterflowering. In 2013, the 5%, 50% and 95% ripe dates for ‘Sapphire’ were:July 15, July 28 and August 9, respectively. For ‘Glen Ample’, afloricane producing standard for the area, the 5%, 50% and 95% ripenessdates were: July 10, July 26 and August 7, respectively. ‘Glen Ample’ isconsidered an early variety in the United Kingdom.

‘Sapphire’ fruit are medium red when ripe, closely resembling the hue ofthe 1995 Royal Horticultural Society Color Plate No. 45A (FIG. 6) andslightly lighter color when underripe, resembling the 1995 RoyalHorticultural Society Color Plate No. 44B. When over ripe, fruitdevelops a darker red color. The fruit does not break down after atleast 14 days in commercial cold storage. Flavor is sweet and the aromais strong and characteristic of red raspberry. Spring ripened fruit wasalways rated above ‘Marcianna’, ‘Driscoll Maravilla’, and ‘Tulameen’ andsignificantly better than ‘Glen Ample’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,418) by aprofessional taste panel in the United Kingdom. The texture of the fruitis firmer than other eastern US-grown red raspberry cultivars known tous, with the exceptions of ‘Josephine’, ‘Georgia’ and ‘DriscollMaravilla’, all with similar firmness. In the United Kingdom, ‘Sapphire’fruit can be harvested every 72 hours between picking as contrasted to arequired 36 hours between picking for ‘Tulameen’, the standard varietyfor mid-late season commercial fruit. In healthy plantings of‘Sapphire’, class 2 or waste was 3.7 to 4.7% of total sound andsufficiently large fruit.

FRUIT PRODUCTION

‘Sapphire’ has been tested in commercial and garden plot trials in Kentand Berkshire in the United Kingdom (FIG. 8). The following data werecollected in the summers of 2011 and 2013. In the Kent test, totalyields in grams per plant were: ‘Sapphire’ 1652 (2011) and 1514 (2013).Total yield in grams per ‘Glen Ample’ plant was 1490 in 2011. In aseparate trial in Berkshire, ‘Sapphire’ yield was 4.0, 5.3 and 6.9kg/meters of row when 4, 5 or 6 floricanes were left in a meter of row,respectively. 6.9 kg/m of row would translate into 27,512 kg/ha=24,211lbs./acre or 3,635 6^(⅔)-lb trays per acre at 2.5 m. (8 ft.) spacingbetween rows. The plant is slightly susceptible to late season leaf rust(yellow rust). The plant's reaction to Phyophthora fragariae var Rubiroot rot is unknown. When plants were excessively watered in winter inthe United States glasshouse, no symptoms of root rot were observed inpotted plants. In other genotypes, Phytophthora sp. was detected using aserological test and plants died. In the United Kingdom in plastic bagsin soilless mix, some root rot symptoms occurred. Phyophthora fragariaevar Rubi was not detected; however, an unidentified Phytophthora specieswas isolated from infested plants.

‘Sapphire’ can be asexually propagated by tissue culture or by rootsuckers. No off-type plants have been observed in the history of asexualpropagation of this cultivar by either method.

What is claimed:
 1. A new and distinct spring bearing red raspberryplant known as ‘Sapphire’ as described herein, illustrated andidentified by the characteristics set forth above.